If you’ve been following JOVM for some time, you may remember coming across a couple of posts on the Los Angeles-based band Cobalt Cranes, a band that had quickly developed a reputation across Southern California for a sound that possessed elements of shoegazer rock and grunge rock – and it was done in a way that sounds warmly familiar without blindly and soullessly mimicking it.

Founding members Tim Foley (guitar) and Kate Betuel (bass) originally started the band as a bedroom recording project, and after recording their first EP together, they recruited two members – Henry (guitar) and Brett (drums) to flesh out the band’s sound.

The band’s debut effort, Head in the Clouds was released to praise from the likes of LA Weekly, LA Recordand The Fader, and as a result the band spent the better part of 2013 and 2014 on the road to support their debut effort. And while on the road, they began writing songs in motel rooms, roadside diners, coffeeshops and the like, and the result is the band’s sophomore effort, Days in the Sun, which employs elements of old-school California surfer rock and grunge. In fact, despite the dark title, “Flowers On Your Grave,” the album’s latest single actually blends subtly twangy folk/rock with shoegazer rock in a way that sounds absolutely familiar – to me I immediately thought of The Stone Roses and others.

The video is comprised of ridiculously bright, sunny hues that go along with the breezy yet subtle wistfulness of the song.

William Ruben Helms

I'm a music blogger, critic and photographer, who has had articles and photos published in Premier Guitar Magazine, Brooklyn Magazine, The New York Press, New York Magazine's Vulture Blog, Ins&Outs Magazine, The Noise Beneath the Apple, Glide Magazine, The Whiskey Dregs Magazine and others.